


A Gorgeous Brunette

by Melodious329



Category: CW Network RPF, Kane (Band), Supernatural RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-19
Updated: 2011-04-19
Packaged: 2017-10-18 08:52:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melodious329/pseuds/Melodious329
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a choice of words turns into a big misunderstanding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Gorgeous Brunette

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I neither own nor know any of the real persons on which these characters are based

Daniel opens the back door of the small smoky club, stepping outside desperate to breathe in the cool night air for a minute. Leaning against the brick wall, he takes a deep breath and looks out at the parking lot. That’s when he hears a familiar laugh.

He recognizes the blonde man, Steve, the one who laughed, but Steve’s too far away to acknowledge. Steve occasionally comes to this club, but Daniel doesn’t recognize the guy with him. The guy’s hot, at least from what Daniel can see from the back, long wavy dark brown hair, broad shoulders and a tapered waist, a perky butt visible in those jeans. As Daniel watches, Steve turns his face so Daniel can see his profile and takes the hottie’s hand in his own.

Daniel’s startled when the door bursts open, the heat and noise from inside suddenly assaulting him. “Hey,” Daniel’s own boyfriend says. “You comin’ back in?”

“Yeah,” Daniel replies with a smile, taking his boyfriend’s hand. “I just saw Steve with a gorgeous brunette.”

“Really?” his boyfriend asks. “Wonder who it was?”

***

Two Weeks Later

Christian’s been hanging in LA for about two weeks, a little break that he and Steve really needed. The two of them have been on and off for such a long time. Both of them have made mistakes (some of them the one night kinda mistake), and while it was fun being on tour together again, there wasn’t really any private time for them to be just themselves.

They’re really making a go of it this time. Now they’re old enough that they’re through running away, through being confused about what they want and what they can compromise on, what they can and can’t live without. It’s been a good two weeks.

Tonight they’ve gone out with some friends, well, more Steve’s friends than Christian’s. Christian’s been gone from LA for a long time and feels totally out of the scene. But everyone’s been cool.

“Want another?” Steve asks, leaning down to speak intimately into Christian’s ear where Christian is sitting.

“Sure,” Christian says, almost shivering at the feel of Steve’s hot breath even as he hands over his glass.

Steve walks off to the bar, leaving Christian with a group of four guys and two girls. As soon as Steve walks off a girl leans forward, practically falling off her seat to try to talk to him.

“Hey, I heard Steve was shacked up with a gorgeous brunette,” says the girl, a brunette herself. She’s speaking about as quietly as a girl who’s had a couple of drinks can.

Christian is stunned into being silent for just a beat too long so she continues. “I just wondered who she is, since Steve’s not talking about it.”

It feels like his chest has simply collapsed, cold and empty on the inside while his skin feels hot and flushed with shame. Christian shakes his head so that his hair hides his face for a minute. “Naw,” he says, all genuine country-drawl naivete. “I haven’t seen him with a girl lately,” he ventures. “How do you know?”

“Oh, I forgot who said,” she slurs, but a guy to her right comes to her rescue.

“Brian, Daniel’s boyfriend said Steve was holding some girl’s hand,” the guy elaborates. “It’s just weird he’s not talking about her. Maybe he doesn’t want to jinx it.”

The group laughs a little about Steve’s luck with women, but Christian just nods and looks down at his knees. He really needs that drink about now.

And yet it feels like Steve comes back all too soon. Everyone laughs and talks like nothing at all had been said while the blonde musician was gone. But Christian is no longer in the mood to make nice with these people or with Steve. He manages to thank Steve but then downs his drink, rolling the empty glass in his hands for only a moment before excusing himself to the bar to get a shot and a drink.

He’s been there a while when Steve finally comes up to him. “Whoa, Chris,” Steve says then lowers the volume of his voice. “What’s up with drowning yourself?”

“No reason,” Christian growls.

Steve stares at him for a beat and his eyes narrow but Christian doesn’t offer any reason. Finally Steve speaks again. “Maybe we should just head home?” he suggests firmly.

“Yeah,” Christian growls before downing the rest of his drink and semi-slamming the glass back on the table. “Let’s go.”

As soon as they’re in the car though, Steve’s back at it. “I don’t know what happened tonight…” Steve starts in that tightly controlled voice he uses when he’s pissed instead of his normal California drawl. Let him be pissed, Christian thinks to himself.

“When we get home,” Christian interrupts.

He can tell that his answer makes Steve suspicious, and more pissed. Neither of them is the type to calm down before they talk or even to care about where they are when they argue. They’re much more likely to blow up at each other and then let it blow over.

Back at the house, though, Christian immediately grabs his keys from their place in the hallway. He doesn’t intend to talk.

“Where are you going?” Steve practically shouts. “You’re fucking drunk, Christian!”

“So what?!” Christian shouts back. “I’m leaving.”

“No,” Steve grabs his bicep. “You’re not leaving until you tell me what is wrong with you!”

Christian doesn’t even try to get away, he only growls lower and more menacing, “You fucking know what’s wrong.”

Steve let’s go of Christian and throws up his arms in frustration, like Christian is totally crazy. “Jesus Christ, Christian. I put up with a lot of your mood swings but this is ridiculous. Maybe you have bipolar two.”

“My mood swings, huh? Well, you won’t need to worry about them anymore,” Christian starts to turn away again.

“Just tell me!” Steve cries.

“Who’s the gorgeous brunette, Steve? Everyone was talking about how you’re shacked up with some woman! So who is she?” Christian yells back though he doesn’t really want to know the answer. It doesn’t matter who.

“What?” Steve asks, his voice gone soft and horrified, horrified that Christian found out his little secret. Christian is the dirty secret while Steve goes out in public with this woman.

“It’s over,” Christian hisses, his throat closing up with emotions, anger turning to hurt and betrayal. “I thought…I was…” Christian shakes his head, hiding behind his hair like he knows Steve hates. But it doesn’t matter now.

When Christian walks out the door, Steve doesn’t stop him.

***

One Week Later

Steve’s surprised when Jensen turns up at his house a day after flying into LA. Of course, Steve is happy to see his friend, particularly because Steve has been venting his pain and frustration to the younger actor on the phone since the fight happened per usual. But Steve feels guilty at taking Jensen away from his wife to deal with Christian’s bullshit.

“Jensen,” Steve says with a sheepish smile as he opens the door, letting Jensen into his home. “Wanna beer?” he asks.

Jensen makes an obvious show of looking around Steve’s house before he answers. “That’s ok. It’s a pleasant surprise not to see this place littered with bottles, but I’m not gonna give you an excuse to drink.”

Steve looks sheepish as he pulls a couple of diet Cokes from the fridge instead. He and Christian have a reputation for destroying each other with their fights, and Steve has put too much of it on Jensen over the years. “I’m not doing that anymore,” Steve says with a sigh. He feels so old, tired of the drunken binges and the meaningless nights of sex. He really wanted to make a go of it with Christian, and everything was going so well, he thought…he thought it was his happy ending.

“Well, I’ve heard some interesting things being back in LA,” Jensen starts, leaning on his forearms on the granite countertop.

“You’ve been back one day,” Steve says.

“Danneel and I ran into some people last night,” Jensen explains.

“You shoulda stayed home in bed,” Steve teases with a half grimace before taking a sip of his own Coke.

“Daniel,” Jensen continues as if Steve hasn’t spoken. “You introduced me to him a few times. He said that he saw you and the ‘gorgeous brunette’ outside of Rendezvous a few weeks ago.”

“But I’ve only been there with Chris, or you,” Steve says confused.

“Exactly,” Jensen says with an air of exasperation. “He saw you holding a guy’s hand. He saw you with Chris!” Jensen spells it out.

Steve blinks, confused. “That doesn’t change anything. I told you, and him, that I didn’t cheat. It’s not about the truth at this point, it’s about that he doesn’t trust me.”

Jensen glares at him. “If you want to give up, give up. I do think that Chris deserves to know the real story.”

There’s a pause before Jensen continues. “And ask yourself. You and Chris have both cheated and betrayed each other in the past, if you heard Chris was sleeping around, would you believe it?”

Steve’s quiet.

***

Steve still has keys to Chris’s place in LA and he uses them when there’s no answer to his knocking. Just like Jensen, he’s expecting to see the empty bottles on the coffee table as he walks down the hall to the kitchen where Christian is standing with his back to the door though he has to know that someone has come in.

“Christian,” Steve says, announcing himself.

“What’re you doing here?” Christian asks, his voice wrecked from the alcohol. He turns just a little, showing Steve a slice of his profile as he lifts a glass of amber liquid to his lips.

Steve hadn’t expected Christian to have grown out of these binges just because he has. Christian has always been emotional and moody and incapable of containing it. It reminds Steve how he shouldn’t have said Christian had a psychological disorder just because he was upset.

“I didn’t cheat on you. Not this time,” Steve answers.

Christian isn’t going to make this easy though, and he turns his face away so that Steve can’t see any of his expression.

“You remember when we went to the Rendezvous?” Steve asks, but he doesn’t wait for an answer. “The parking lot was deserted and I held your hand on the way to the car.”

Christian’s back is stiff as a board, showing no indication of his thoughts and feelings. “The parking lot wasn’t deserted,” Steve explains. “A friend who doesn’t know you saw us and told everyone about it.”

Steve has to put his hand on Christian’s shoulder then, has to take a step closer. They’re like two magnets constantly pulling together no matter what happens. “Christian, the ‘gorgeous brunette’ that I was seen with? It was you, man.”

But just like when Jensen told Steve, there’s no immediate relief. The only response is that Christian’s right arm moves, and Steve can hear Christian drinking down the Jack.

Steve sighs audibly in warning and then steps up against Christian’s back, his arms on the counter on either side of Christian’s hips. He doesn’t lean in to whisper in Christian’s ear but his lips are very close when he asks the important question softly, “Do you think we’ll ever trust each other?”

The clink of the glass hitting the counter seems loud and Steve notices how Christian tips his head just a little more foreward, hiding, despite that Steve still can’t see his face.

Taking more liberty, Steve molds his chest against Christian’s back, relaxing finally, wrapping his arms around Christian’s belly and resting his chin on a broad shoulder. “I want as many chance as it takes for this to work. Because there’s never gonna be anyone else for us. We’re stuck together.”

Steve smiles a little sadly and hugs Christian tighter. They are stuck together. Steve shouldn’t have expected them to just suddenly turn their relationship around. There’s too much hurts on both sides, too much habitual bad behavior and defensive behavior. But Steve had to admit to himself that Christian is it for him. Steve will always be drawn back to Christian.

He’s not really expecting a similar declaration from Christian. The fact that Christian let him into the house was the sign that Christian was ready to make up no matter whether Steve denied or admitted the cheating. But Christian will still need a while for his emotions to bounce back, for him to relax his guard again.

But then a rough voice says, “A gorgeous brunette, huh?”


End file.
